Teammates Last Week, Opponents Today

MNTMar 25, 2015

When the U.S. MNT and Denmark face off on Wednesday, it will be a matchup of a USA squad coming off a 2-0 win against Panama in February, and a Danish team that leads its 2016 European Cup qualification group.

It will also be a collision of club teammates. DeAndre Yedlin and Denmark’s Christian Eriksen both play for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur; Aron Johannsson is teammates with defender Simon Busk Pouslen at AZ Alkmaar; and Alejandro Bedoya and Kian Hansen play together at Nantes.

For the players, bragging rights are on the line.

“It’s definitely a lot of mind games.” Bedoya said of playing against his Nantes teammate Hansen. “We’ve been talking since before we came here about who the better team is. It’s fun getting to play against a teammate of yours. He’s a good guy. I hang around with him a lot on the field, but as we all know, once the game starts and the whistle blows, we’re enemies. We’re all going to try and do whatever it takes to win. Denmark’s a good team.”

Yedlin also spoke highly of his Spurs teammate and (temporary) opponent.

“He’s (Eriksen) a great player and I’ve learned a lot from getting to play alongside him.” Yedlin said. He also added however, that he’d love to be able to go home and have a USA win of which to remind Eriksen when they’re training in Tottenham.

Johansson echoed similar words for his teammate Pouslen, whom he called one of the best.

“It’s always great going up against a teammate. Hopefully we’ll walk away with the win.”